All posts tagged Career Paths

Where they once won regular promotions, they’re suddenly passed over–leaving them feeling stale and stuck. Their old ways no longer work. Yet they don’t understand why.

If this sounds like you, it’s time to take action and revive your trajectory. Plateaus are inevitable during the decades of a work life. But as businesses raise expectations for managers’ performance, even a little coasting can kill a career, leadership experts say. Read More »

Comparing the 1850 list to the 2010 version shows which occupations might realistically be considered timeless. Entertainers — or showmen, as our great-great-great grandparents might have called them–artists, editors (Aha! — Ed.), barbers and bakers were around back then, and they still toil away in large enough numbers to merit a listing in 2010. Same with physicians, veterinarians, civil engineers and lawyers. Read More »

First, the bad news: Nearly 75% of 2013 high school graduates who took the ACT college readiness exam aren’t fully prepared for college, according to a new report by the organization that administers the test.

Now, the (moderately) good: Student performance has improved slightly since 2009, when just 23% of high school graduates tested met all four of the exam’s benchmarks for college readiness, compared with 26% this year.

The report, out Wednesday from the ACT, shows that American high school students are making slow progress toward college readiness and raises concerns about whether they’ll have the skills necessary to fill jobs in the future, said Jon Erickson, president of educational division of the ACT.

More than half of all 2013 high school graduates in the U.S. took the exam, which assesses proficiency in English, reading, math and science.

Nearly two-thirds of test-takers failed to achieve two or more of the four benchmarks for college readiness, and on the test’s science section, just over a third of students met the benchmark.

The results reveal wide gaps between what students hope to achieve and their abilities in key subject areas, Mr. Erickson said. Read More »

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg initiated a firestorm when she lamented recently that women aren’t leaning in to their careers enough.

But a new study suggests that’s only the case with some women—specifically, mothers who attended elite colleges.

Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, analyzed data from the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates and crossed the information with the Carnegie Foundation’s classifications of schools and selectivity measures from Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges. She found that women who attended highly selective schools are more likely to opt out of the workforce than are their counterparts from less selective schools… Read More »

What ever happened to the cushy career, the sure thing that awaited after years of toil in law school, medical school or even college?

Entering an established field like banking, medicine or law was once a guarantee of a sweet salary and job security – but such assurances are quickly becoming a thing of the past. The Journal reported late yesterday that Goldman Sachs, the go-to firm for aspiring Wall Street titans, is scrapping its traditional two-year contracts for most analysts hired straight from college. The changes will kick in with the class starting next summer.

Banking, once a competitive destination for fresh graduates, has grown less enticing as financial institutions have scaled back on bonuses and perks over the last few years. (Goldman analysts, for example, are generally paid $70,000 in their first year and $80,000 in the second, according to the Journal. But annual bonuses, previously the size of the full salary, generally, have shrunk.) As The New York Times pointed out in December, fewer graduates from Princeton, Harvard and Yale are heading into financial services after college.

The recent turmoil on Wall Street has also served to heighten stress levels, which can lead to burnout and health problems, as the Journal highlighted earlier this year… Read More »

About At Work

Written and edited by The Wall Street Journal’s Management & Careers group, At Work covers life on the job, from getting ahead to managing staff to finding passion and purpose in the office. Tips, questions? email us.